A huge thank you to our devoted birders for participating in Redbud Audubon’s 51st Christmas Bird Count held December 20, 2025! The temperatures ranged from 47° to 60°, one of the warmest count days we’ve had in many years. Unfortunately, the forecast for rain to start at 4:00 p.m. didn’t hold: showers began around 1:30, with steady rain beginning around 2:30. Not a total washout – but a pretty wet afternoon!
The preliminary species count is 128, with 31,307 total birds seen by 14 separate groups and 36 participants. Considering the poor weather conditions, the total birds seen is a good number, and our participation numbers were up this year.
Uncommon birds seen this year are: Long-tailed Duck (1), Ross’s Goose (1), Redhead (1), Barrow’s Goldeneye (1), Tree Swallow (25), and Bullock’s and Hooded Orioles (1 of each). This is the first time in 51 years that a Long-tailed Duck and Ross’s Goose have been seen on the count! High numbers are: Wood Duck (60), Ruddy Duck (6,468), Great Blue Heron (52), Great Egret (98), Black-crowned Night Heron (37), California Thrasher (13) and Lincoln’s Sparrow (9). Low numbers are: Osprey (0), Common Merganser (5), and Western Meadowlark (29).
Our official Count Week extended from Dec 17 to Dec 23. Count Week (cw) birds are not a part of our official census data for our count day, but birds seen during the days before or after our count day, which are not seen on count day, are recorded on our checklist as “cw”. No other information about count week birds is recorded in the CBC database, including the numbers observed or the date seen, but recording them helps us to establish some of the birds that were in the circle and missed on count day. This year those birds were: Sora, Peregrine Falcon, Pygmy Nuthatch, House Wren, Lark Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, and Western Tanager.
We are so grateful to each and every participant, from the brand new beginner to the experienced, decades long participants. The importance of having as many people out in the field covering our count circle is shown by the great bird sightings below. Without all of you, many of these birds would have been missed. Through tremendous skill, effort and persistence, 9 of our groups were the only ones who reported one or more of the following species:
Greater White-fronted Goose (12) Great Horned Owl (4)
Ross’s Goose (1) Brown Creeper (1)
Canvasback (2) Pacific Wren (1)
Redhead (1) Marsh Wren (1)
Barrow’s Goldeneye (1) American Pipit (1)
Common Merganser (5) Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
Long-tailed Duck (1) White-throated Sparrow (2)
Ring-necked Pheasant (2) Bell’s Sparrow (1)
Common Loon (1) Rufous-crowned Sparrow (7)
Golden Eagle (1) Hooded Oriole (1)
Least Sandpiper (1) Bullock’s Oriole (1)
Iceland Gull (2) Tricolored Blackbird (1)
Band-tailed Pigeon (12) Brown-headed Cowbird (5)
Barn Owl (2) Great-tailed Grackle (5)
Western Screech Owl (1)
Using preliminary numbers, the top three species this year are:
1. Ruddy Duck: 6,468; 2. Western/Clark’s Grebes: 4,836; 3. Western Grebes: 4,587
The success of the bird count is a result of everyone who participates each year, either in a group, or by birding at your own homes. Your willingness to spend many hours birding in the field, and more hours at home putting together your reporting forms is appreciated so much. Your extraordinary efforts result in an accurate and complete count of birds located in our count circle year after year.
We hope all participants had a nice day of birding, despite the wet conditions, and will plan to join us next year for Redbud Audubon’s 52nd Annual Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, December 19, 2026.
